Known answering machines allow a called party to provide a pre-recorded message to a calling party after the call is connected and the phone has remained unanswered after a certain number of rings. The calling party can then leave a message for playback by the called party. These known answering machines, however, play the same pre-recorded message to every calling party regardless of whom called.
Some known messaging systems allow a called party to customize the message played to the calling party. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,704, issued to Brunson on Feb. 26, 1991 and assigned on its face to AT&T Bell Laboratories, is a known PBX-based system which allows the called party to customize the message to be played to the calling party. The called party can record multiple announcement messages each associated with at least one calling party. Upon receiving an incoming call, the automatic number identification (ANI) of the calling party is used to retrieve any associated customized message; that customized message is then played to the calling party.
These known messaging systems, however, do not have every feature that a called party may want. First, these known messaging systems are limited to use through a PBX and are only available to PBX customers; non-PBX consumers cannot use these known messaging systems.
Second, these known messaging systems require the call to be connected before the customized message can be provided to the calling party. The customized message can only be delivered after the called party's line has been rung and the called party has not answered, or after the called party's line has been rung and the line is busy.
Third, these known messaging systems are based on the called party's number at the PBX. These known messaging systems cannot address the situation where the called party has multiple telephone numbers; rather the called party separately has to customize messages for each telephone number.
Another known system allows a called party to customize the treatment of calls based on the identity of the calling party. U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,649, issued to Sheinbein on Jul. 7, 1981 and assigned on its face to Bell Telephone Laboratories, is a switched-based system integrated into the local switching office connecting the calling party to the interoffice trunk line. Every time the called party goes off-hook, the Sheinbein system is alerted and the called party is routed through the Sheinbein system. The called party can then enter special dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) digits to enter customization instructions. While provisioning the Sheinbein system, the called party can hear announcements based on various half-second speech intervals. The called party can specify call treatment, such as call forwarding, based on a particular calling party's number.
The Sheinbein system, however, does not have every feature that a called party may want. First, this system unnecessarily requires every call by the called party and by any calling party to be routed through the system. This is a consequence of this system being integrated into the switching office. Second, this system cannot provide granularity to the treatment of calls. In other words, calls are analyzed at a top level where provisioning and treatment are performed on the basis of an entire called party number and an entire calling party number. Provisioning and treatment cannot be performed on a more detailed or complex basis. Finally, this system does not disclose providing any customized messaging to the calling party.